Judy Jarvis A Local Talk-show Host Without A Local Audience

Media Blitz - Ink, Web Sites & Airwaves

July 17, 1997|By BILL KEVENEY; Courant Staff Writer

Every weekday, Judy Jarvis broadcasts by satellite to places like Seattle and St. Louis. But if you drive by her Farmington studio, you won't be able to hear her syndicated radio show. It's not on the air here.

For six months, Jarvis has been in the odd position of talking to listeners in about 40 markets nationally but not being able to reach those at home, in the Hartford region.

The situation arose when her broadcast home, WPOP-AM (1410), switched from news and talk to a syndicated sports-talk format in January. In one fell swoop, Jarvis lost her studio home of nearly five years and a local spot on the dial for her noon-to-3 p.m. show.

Finding a new studio was the easy part. Jarvis immediately moved to the old WRCH-FM studios in Dick Robinson's Media Park, which also is home to the Connecticut School of Broadcasting. With renovations and new equipment, the studio ``is everything we wanted,'' Jarvis said.

Getting back on the dial in the Hartford area is another story.

``It is our home, and we love it. Now our neighbors and friends can't hear it unless they go on computer [www.judyjarvisshow.com]'' or drive to places such as Fairfield County, she said.

Jarvis said she gets mail, e-mail and faxes asking when she will be on the air again locally, and that people still call WPOP to find out what happened to her show.

Her situation is not unusual, considering the state of radio. Talk radio, though very popular, does not have as many listeners as music stations. With mergers putting more stations in fewer hands, and programmers trying to avoid format overlaps, many markets have just one or two talk-radio stations.

With WPOP's change, WTIC-AM (1080) is the only station here with a talk format, not counting the many morning shows. And, with local hosts (Ray Dunaway and Bruce Stevens) and syndicated giants Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura Schlessinger filling much of the day, there's little room for anyone else there.

``It's one of the unfortunate ironies of today's competitive marketplace,'' said Michael Harrison, editor of Talkers magazine, which named Jarvis one of the 100 most important people in talk radio.

He said some Hartford station should find room for Jarvis. Jarvis said she would like to be back on in the area and has talked to at least one nearby station, WNNZ-AM (640). But there are no immediate opportunities here. For now, she's concentrating on new markets. She recently added four affiliates and is talking to stations in three large metropolitan areas.

Musical chairs: Starting Monday, WDRC (1360-AM and 102.9-FM) is shifting around some of its disc jockeys. Bruce Owens will move his four-hour AM show four hours earlier to 10 a.m., replacing a Westwood One syndicated format. Jack Carney will take Owens' 2 p.m. slot, moving over from the FM side. And Doug Taylor, who has worked many shifts, will put down roots from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. on WDRC-FM, taking over Carney's old slot.

One reason for the change is dissatisfaction with the Westwood One format, which was trying to skew younger than WDRC's demographic core, 45 and up, WDRC general manager Wayne Mulligan said.

Ad lib: Billboards for WHCN-FM (105.9) tell listeners to literally ``Give Us the Finger'' by punching it in on the radio dial. If you don't tune in, does that mean you're still following they're instructions, at least figuratively?